Regular content viewed on a virtual reality (VR) headset looks dull. Watching a traditional movie in VR presents the viewer with the worst of both worlds—lower resolution and lower display quality as compared with a high-end television—with none of the immersive features of VR to compensate.
Existing solutions for watching traditional content (such as from the Netflix app) in VR are very underwhelming. The content is shown to a user in a flat rectangle—which is only a portion of an overall virtual world, for example depicted with the user's headmounted display. The user is left watching a low-quality version of the original in the flat rectangle amid the overall virtual world presented to the users.
The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section. Similarly, issues identified with respect to one or more approaches should not assume to have been recognized in any prior art on the basis of this section, unless otherwise indicated.